Christian Slater in "The Forgotten," Julianna Margulies in "The Good Wife," Chris O'Donnell in "NCIS: Los Angeles."As this TV season moves along, you’ll see some shows that try to tell new stories, or to tell old stories in new ways. Tonight, however, you’ll be getting a whole lot of the familiar, with the debuts of a spinoff ("NCIS: Los Angeles"), a legal drama ("The Good Wife") and another crime show from the Jerry Bruckheimer factory ("The Forgotten"). But these three rookies — some better than others — are a reminder that you can be good without being original, and that you can be bad just because you’re bad, not because you’re repetitive.

In order...

"NCIS: Los Angeles" (9 p.m., Ch. 2)

When the "NCIS: LA" characters debuted during an "NCIS" two-parter last spring (what’s known in the business as a backdoor pilot for a new series), it seemed like it was going to be to the parent show what "CSI: Miami" is to "CSI." "NCIS" is unabashedly light and even geeky; the fun comes from watching a cast with strong chemistry banter with each other. The "NCIS: LA" portions of the backdoor pilot, on the other hand, emphasized cool gadgets (look, it’s LL Cool J with a giant touch screen!) and a brooding attitude. Snore.

Clearly, the producers realized this was a mistake, as tonight’s proper debut episode is laced with attempts at "NCIS"-style light comedy. The problem is that Chris O’Donnell and Cool J aren’t naturally funny, nor do they (yet) have the kind of obvious on-screen bond that Mark Harmon and Michael Weatherly display in the same respective roles on the parent show. So most of the humor feels like a show that’s trying too hard, except when we’re watching the great-yet-tiny character actress Linda Hunt as the boss of NCIS’s Los Angeles field office. Hunt doesn’t have enough to do in the premiere, but her enthusiasm and amusement about getting (or having) to say lines like, "And, of course, it’s encrypted!" are infectious.

The bigger problem, though, is the casting of blander-than-bland O’Donnell in the lead role, as ace undercover operative G Callan. (Just an initial, no first name, because he’s mysterious! Or maybe encrypted!) His lack of gravity in the serious moments makes you appreciate how easily Harmon can flip the switch from silly to deadly, and it’s laughable that he would be cast as a man of a thousand faces. If Chris O’Donnell has a thousand faces, they all have the same expression, and it’s asking why he ordered ranch dressing instead of creamy Italian.

The casting of Hunt and shifting of tone from the backdoor pilot suggest a show with a desire to improve, and at least the producers recognize how to use a physical specimen like Cool J in the action scenes. At one point, Callan and Cool J’s Sam Hanna, on foot, spot some potential bad guys driving away from a crime scene. And for a second, it looks like Sam is going to chase them on foot — and that he has the ability to catch up to them.

"The Good Wife" (10 p.m., Ch. 2)

Though I’m not the target demographic for it, "The Good Wife" is the best — and timeliest — of tonight’s three debuts.

Julianna Margulies plays the wife of the title: Alicia Florrick, whose prosecutor husband Peter (guest star Chris Noth) is implicated in a prostitution scandal. The show opens with a wife’s-eye view of those press conferences that have become increasingly common (think Dina Matos McGreevey standing awkwardly next to her husband as he announces that he’s a gay American); Alicia wanders through it in a daze, because as soon as she allows herself to think clearly, she stops being "good" and goes straight to outrage.

"When I heard about those other scandals, those other wives," she’ll later say, "I thought, ‘How could you allow yourself to be used like that?’ Then it happened, and I was .â .â . unprepared."

The story jumps ahead six months. Peter’s in jail, Alicia wants nothing to do with him and she’s dusted off her law degree to take a low-level job at a large firm. She’s older than the other associates and better-known (in an infamous way) than the partners, and other than boss Will Gardner (Josh Charles), no one expects her to succeed.

But Alicia is smart and determined, as any heroine of an underdog narrative should be. So even though she hasn’t examined a witness in over a decade — and the sarcastic judge (guest star David Paymer, in fine form) takes pleasure in her rustiness — she finds herself making headway on a loser of a murder case and suggests that she can stand on her own just fine, thank you.

"The Good Wife" is confident and polished, and a much better showcase for Margulies than her last legal drama, Fox’s "Canterbury’s Law," which was mostly an excuse for viewers to ogle her legs. She can be equal parts tough and vulnerable, commanding the screen even in those moments when Alicia isn’t in command of much of anything. And the nature of her story means the show won’t just be a law procedural — though I’d be fine if that procedural featured David Paymer heckling Julianna Margulies every week.

For what it’s trying to do, "The Good Wife" has already hit on it quite well.

"The Forgotten" (10 p.m., Ch. 7)

"The Good Wife" takes over the time slot that was held last season by the now-canceled "Without a Trace." But if Anthony LaPaglia and company are looking for work, the Bruckheimer crime brand still has a home Tuesdays at 10 — it’s just on another network.

Bruckheimer turned CBS into a ratings success with shows like "CSI," but his company has struggled to develop hits for other networks, in part because the non-CBS shows ("Justice," "Just Legal," "E-Ring") have been outside the company’s comfort zone of meat-and-potatoes mystery. ABC, meanwhile, hasn’t had a successful crime show since "NYPD Blue" went off the air. Hence, their teaming up on "The Forgotten," which is basically "Cold Case: Armchair Detective Hour." (And which features a character who has a photo of Sipowicz on the visor of his car.)

The focus here is on a group of civilians (plus one ex-cop, played by Christian Slater) who help identify John and Jane Doe murder victims after the cops have exhausted all the time and resources they can spare.

"Without who is it..." Slater’s Alex Donovan likes to tell his team...

"...There’s no whodunit," they reply, and if you don’t roll your eyes at that, "The Forgotten" may be up your alley.

Slater actually does some interesting work as Alex — he’s jittery and more desperate than he was on last year’s NBC flop "My Own Worst Enemy," offering the edge he had in his early career work without the annoying Jack Nicholson impression that came with it — but he’s hamstrung by corny dialogue, as well as a hoaky device that has each episode narrated, in non-specific fashion, by the murder victim in question.

Also, the pilot disappoints by giving Slater’s team a chance to solve the case. The characters spend most of the hour explaining that they offer closure to the loved ones of these anonymous bodies just by informing them that they’re dead. While I’m sure groups like this do sometimes help cops catch the killer, letting them do that in the very first episode undercuts the message about the importance of their main mission. And it makes "The Forgotten" seem like just another product off the Bruckheimer assembly line.

But after all the company’s failures trying to do something different, and ABC’s struggles to do the Bruckheimer thing without him, I suspect both parties are just fine with that. Alan Sepinwall may be reached at asepinwall@starledger.com, or at 1 Star-Ledger Plaza, Newark, N.J. 07102-1200. Include your full name and hometown.